blow a kiss, fire a gun
by WritingWithReason
Summary: a friendly game of laser tag among friends. at least, that was the aim of the game until Austin says words to Ally that set her off and it's a battle to the death. all's fair in love and war. it's just a matter of minutes for Austin to realize just that.


**this is rated M, but nothing too explicit or graphic. just M for several f-bombs and whatnot.**

 **fair warning, a good chunk of this was written at 10:30 at night. i'm usually asleep by 10, so parts were created when i was tired and delusional. enjoy.**

* * *

"Oh, look at all these pretties! Mama's here to show you all some lovin'. There's just so many of you."

Ally glanced at her curly haired best friend as she caressed the equipment. The room was dark and the black light illuminated anything that was a lighter color in the room, which included her jean jacket. "Trish," she sighed as she followed her around the room. "Just pick one. They're all the same." Intense battle music played quietly in the background.

"It has to speak to you, Ally," Trish replied, lifting one of the vests, weighing it. She then picked up the gun, closing one eye, pretending to aim at a target. Nodding, the Latina set it back in its holster. "It could be the winning factor. Like when you roll on the floor, is it comfortable? Is the trigger okay? Does it hit its target at least ninety percent of the time? I don't want anything to prevent me from not being able to give one hundred percent into this. A gun can be like an extension of a limb."

The brunette stared at her friend as if she had two heads. It was strange enough for her to talk to her headbands like they were animate objects, it was downright creepy that she spoke to toy weapons. Trish had had her fair share of jobs, including an arcade. She spent much of her time playing the games rather than making sure they were working and being used properly. Ally picked a vest and slung it over her head and onto her shoulders, the weight of it bringing her down closer to the floor. Clicking the latch together and adjusting the straps, the vest grew heavier for a brief minute. In the dim lighting, the targets on her chest, shoulders, lower sides, and back flashed green indicating that the vest was ready for use.

"You do realize that we're playing laser tag, right? Not going into war with actual guns," Ally's left eyebrow lifted as she shook her head. "And since when do you ever give one hundred percent into anything besides taking breaks at work?"

"We might as well be," Trish whispered as she finally decided on a vest and laser gun. "I take this very seriously. You should to."

Normally, she would. But this was laser tag. Having great hand-eye coordination and being athletically agile weren't exactly her forte and her friends knew that. They witnessed her awful ability to roll a nine-pound ball down a lane and hit a single pin countless times before, yet they all managed to convince and drag her to a laser tag arena where there were countless object for her to run into in the dark.

"I can't believe you guys brought me here," she muttered, shifting the armor like vest on her body. This thing was twice her size and practically went down just above her knee. "I'm the least qualified person for this."

"You don't have to be qualified," Trish snorted, adjusting her own attire. "You just have to point the gun, pull the trigger, and earn more points. And try not to get shot."

"How...violent," Ally stared at her, her nose scrunching up and eyebrows furrowing a moment later.

"You're not actually killing them-"

"Yes, I know that."

Her curly haired friend shrugged and walked over to the entrance of the arena where the arcade employee waited-as he explained to them in the 'briefing room'-for everyone to select their number. Ally gave a deep sigh and joined her friend along with their male counterparts. She glanced over at the redhead who towered over her. By the looks of it, he also took the tagging of the lasers quite seriously, if not more than Trish. Even her blond partner-in-crime held a focused expression, completely prepared for the round ahead of them.

"Since there are an even number of you playing this round, splitting into teams should be easy," the arcade guy scanned the small crowd before him. Ally looked behind her and noticed several other bodies had mixed in with them. Some she recognized from school, frequent shoppers at the store, and others that were merely strangers.

 _Fantastic._ She thought, closing her eyes. _Now all of these people will see me exceed at failing in epic proportions._

"There are fourteen of you here, so if you lot paid any attention in school, that would mean…" he paused, as if waiting for the answer.

"Seven," a few voices muttered with a mixture of humor and annoyance for his dry humor.

"Great. Once everyone has gone into their teams, we'll coin toss for who gets first dibs on territories," he continued on. A second later, everyone began muttering and conversing on who goes on which team.

It was quite obvious to the foursome that they would be on the same team. They were a package deal in most cases, hence why they refused to let Ally take a raincheck on laser tag no matter how much she persisted. The four of them had chosen suits that were beside each other anyway.

"Cool," the blond said. "So we just need three more people."

"Look no further, blondie," a female's voice said in the shadows. The four of them turned their heads to see two males, one fairly tall and the other merely several inches shorter, and a female that came about to the taller one's shoulders. The one to her left had his light brown hair swooped upwards with a soft square jawline. The other had rather spiky dark brown hair, probably styled up with gel. His eyes met Ally's and gave her a wink. She shifted on her feet and for once was thankful for being in the dark. However, she felt her partner tense beside her for whatever reason.

The girl between the two had dirty blonde hair that exceeded well past her chest. Ally had never seen hair that could be as straight as hers. Her bangs swooped to the side just before they covered her eyes. A soft smile accompanied her knowing expression.

"I'm Cassidy," she introduced herself, then she pointed to the male to her left followed by the one on her right. "Gavin and Elliot. We're your three."

"Hold on a peep picking minute," Dez hollered. Trish rolled her eyes at his wacky response. "This team requires highly trained, ninja skilled, Deadshot-like assassins, with the exception of Ally who has none of those skills." He ignored her cry of protest. "How do we know you guys aren't going to drag us down?"

"Elliot's pretty crafty with a gun from time to time, Gavin learned karate when he was six, and I've seen Suicide Squad a few times," Cassidy offered. "Does that count?"

The redhead pondered on the thought before nodding rapidly, "Congrats, you've been recruited."

The three in front of them smiled triumphantly before dressing themselves with the remaining three vests and falling in line with the rest of the group. Ally rolled her shoulders back, trying to even out the weight on them.

Her blond counterpart situated himself beside her. "You ready?"

"More like ready to be humiliated because I'm totally shit at this," she mumbled back to him, causing him to laugh. Ally wasn't one to swear often so it amused the singer to see her so anxious and distraught about a game. "How the hell am I supposed to move in this God awful thing?"

"Don't worry, Ally," he reassured her. "I'll protect you."

The instructor guy returned to his previous position, with his arms on his waist.

"The rules are simple," he began. "You must remain standing at all times, meaning no laying on the ground, this isn't some military combat shit, it's laser tag; Also, no climbing on top of any barrels or crates. If you get hit, the lights on your vest will switch from green to red and any shots you take will be automatically stalled for ten seconds. It will make a beeping sound once you are able to fire again. Firing and hitting a team member will cost the entire team fifteen points. However, if you successfully hit another player on the opposing team, that is twenty-five points. The team with most points wins the round. Each round is twenty minutes and the horn will mark the five minute warning. Once the round ends, return each vest to the same spot you picked it up from."

The group nodded their heads in sync in understanding.

"We all good?" He said. Everyone chorused a 'yeah'. "Now, I'll just need a member from each team to come on either side of me for the coin toss."

Austin stepped forward at the same time as a dark haired girl from the other team did. The instructor pulled a quarter from his pocket. "Heads or tails. Blondie, call it." The coin clinked as he flicked it up into the air.

"Heads."

* * *

Their team had won the first round. It didn't surprise them at all. They were all hollering at each other, helping one another move from one hiding spot to the next, watching each other's' backs.

What did surprise them was when the instructor handed them all their point cards. Austin had been subtly bragging about how he ranked second overall and that in the next round he was going to go after whomever was ranked first. Trish walked over to Ally and asked what her point score was and the brunette merely shrugged and handed it to her best friend. She read over it, her eyes widening as she reached her overall ranking.

"Oh my God," Trish laughed. "You sure you've never played before?"

"No, why?"

"Ally, you ranked first out of all of us! You beat Austin!"

Ally's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and said, "What?" just as Austin cried, "Ally got first?!"

"Looks like you need to watch your back, buddy," Dez nudged his best friend with his elbow and the blond singer glared at him. "Maybe in the next around, Ally can protect you instead of you protecting her."

A round of chuckles waved through the group, everyone except him.

"I basically took all the shots that were aimed at her," Austin questioned incredulously. His tone made his friend/songwriter turn towards him. "How did Ally get ranked first? C'mon this is bull-"

The brunette crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at the tall male. "Are you implying that I'm not allowed to be ranked first? That I'm only supposed to be the 'damsel in distress'? The princess that hides behind a knight?"

Their eyes met and a tension rose from the eighties patterned carpet. The rest of the group found a sudden interest in something other than the two bodies conversing in front of them. A silence fell between them; only the arcade games around them made a sound.

"No, Ally, you misunderstood-"

"Enlighten me then, Austin," her arms remained cross, her facial features hard. "What did you mean?"

"You said so yourself, Ally," he began. "You're not exactly the best at the game. You basically stuck to me the whole time. I took any shot that was aimed at you."

"According to the scorecard, I didn't need to have you standing in front of me. I seemed to handle myself just fine."

"Let's face it, Ally," Austin snorted. "Girls are never really as good as boys in this kind of stuff. You know, toy guns and battle strategies. If I wasn't there, you'd be ranked fourteenth."

Trish and Cassidy audibly sucked in a breath while the rest of the boys winced as they watched the murderous look on Ally's face appear.

"Should not have said that, dude," Elliot mumbled, his eyes wide.

"Well, he's screwed," Gavin said to the two girls whose jaws hung down.

"Mom and Dad are fighting again," Dez whispered and sighed. "This is why we can no longer have nice things."

Ally said nothing for a good minute or two before forcing her lips up into a smile, a terrifyingly wicked, scheming smile, that hardly ever graced her in the nineteen years of her existence. The singer immediately shut his mouth and gulped, regretting the words that spewed passed his lips. Before she could respond, the instructor called them all back for the second round.

They huddled near the entrance door again. It was the same group as before, but a few more people had joined in this time.

"Are we still going with the same teams, seeing as there's still an even number of you all, or something different-"

"Battle of the Sexes," a clear voice rang out from the bunch. Several heads turned to see that it was Ally that had suggested it. All of them looking with wide eyes, shocked at her sudden boldness. One of those pairs of eyes were Austin's.

"Not a bad idea," the instructor grazed over the crowd. "Sadly, there's one too many guys for it to be fair-"

"Fair-shmair," Cassidy smiled, throwing her arm over Ally's shoulder. "We don't need it to be a fifty-fifty split, do we ladies?"

The females hooted and hollered in agreement. "Dicks don't scare us."

The instructor chuckled while the males in the room either laughed or cleared their throats. "Well, alright. Balls versus Boobs it is."

The teams flooded the equipment room, suiting up for the battle ahead. No one said a word, only the music in the background fuelled their blood, well mostly Ally's blood.

"Same rules as before. But to make this around more interesting, once you've been shot three times, you're out for the round. Ladies, kick their asses," the instructor nodded at them. "Gents, don't cry too much when they kick your asses. I get that enough when little kids lose a game."

The girls smirked as the guys looked at each other worriedly. They all took their places and waited for the countdown to start. Never had anyone in that room felt tension as thick as that before.

"The game will begin in three...two…." the voice announced.

"Welcome to the Hunger Games," one of the females said, with a sly smile on her lips.

"One."

* * *

It had occurred to Austin that he hadn't encountered his brunette partner throughout the whole game. To his left, Dez's vest buzzed and the lights flashed red.

"Dammit," he cursed, pointing his gun down. He patted the blond on the back in apology. "Sorry, buddy."

"It's okay, Dez," Austin nodded as the redhead headed off from the upper level of the arena, where the two had positioned themselves for the majority of the round, to the bench where anyone who got tagged out also sat and waited. He eyed the group, scanning to see who had been left in the arena. Cassidy, Trish, Gavin, Elliot, and now Dez grouped together, sharing knowing smiles with each other. He accounted three other males from his team and three females from the girls' team. None of whom were Ally.

A shiver ran down his spine as he knew deep down, he was screwed. But that inkling of a feeling wasn't going to stop him from winning this game and proving a point. Getting up from his squatting position, he creeped over to the other side of the wall, keeping his guard up and his finger on the trigger, ready to shoot whoever crosses path with him. The music in the arena echoed through the room as his eyes scanned around. Though it didn't help very much. The room was a lot darker than the equipment area and more black lights illuminated anything neon or white. Some of their teammates cheered the remaining three players still in the game.

A shadow zoomed by his peripheral and he made a dash for cover, his heart racing. He had one chance left. Shot once by Trish; she had made it known to the whole group but then was shot by Elliot who was then shot out by Trish who had a vendetta against him following that encounter.

The second time he was shot was by Dez accidentally thinking he was someone else. He kept apologizing for five minutes after pulling the trigger.

"Dez, you're only forgiven if you keep your mouth shut and try not to get shot again," Austin looked at him through the darkness. Dez had been wearing a fairly bright orange shirt, but luckily the vest covered the bulk of it; only his sleeves glowed in the black lighting.

The pair kept up a good front until Dez sneezed and lost his balance, falling over from their wall cover. The next thing they knew, his vest made a beeping noise and Austin was left to fend for himself.

No other voices came over the music until a minute later when the blond heard a scream followed by a female voice, "Fucking hell, Hayden!"

"We both died, Emma," another voice yelled. "You shot me, I shot you."

"Clearly," the female answered back.

He looked over his shoulder and saw two sets of flashing red lights walk towards the bench. He assumed the two had crossed paths and shot each other simultaneously, both clearly annoyed at the fact that they 'died'.

With the two gone, that only left himself...and Ally.

"Fuck," Austin whispered to himself as he realized his situation. He had no idea where that girl was hiding nor how he will end up shooting her before she got him. He made the executive decision to move from his safe spot. It was on the higher level, slightly enclosed from either side of him. The only vulnerable points were behind him, which was the direction he was facing, and the sliver of openings between the walls that were about five inches apart. They were small enough to prevent any clear shots, but were wide enough to still get shots in.

Austin made his way down the ramp leading up to the leven slowly, his gun positioned on his front shoulder blade. His eyes never resting, darting left and right, up then down. Although the air conditioning was clearly pumping cold air into the arena, he was still sweating, from constantly moving around for the past fifteen minutes and from his nerves.

Just then, the five minute warning alarm rang through the darkness. Five minutes. He had five minutes left until the game was over. Five minutes to find Ally and win the game. But that also meant five minutes for Ally to find him and win the game.

"C'mon, Austin! Don't be scared!"

"Shoot his ass, Ally!"

Austin whipped around as he heard the pounding of feet on the ramp behind him. He began walking backwards, gun pointed upwards towards the balcony. His breathing became shallow and his heart raced. Another loud thumping came from his left and his position immediately switched from pointing up to pointing left, and then again to the right.

Unknowingly on his part, he walked towards a corner of the field. He looked around and headed for the clearest opening.

"Five minutes left, Austin," A familiar voice said in the blackness. "Who's gonna shoot first?"

He stepped backwards as he saw her silhouette appear headed towards him, her gun in her right hand. She didn't have it pointed at him like he did with her. Even in the dark, he could see the smile painted on her lips.

He held his ground. "I am," he said, gun pointed at her and finger ready to click the trigger.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." He felt his finger muscle twitch and his gun made the _pew_ sound a second later.

Unfortunately for him, she dodged the shot easily as she spun and hid behind a pillar. He carefully approached it, both hands on the handle of the laser weapon.

A laugh appeared behind him and he turned in time for her to back him up against the wall. Her gun pressed against his side and her face mere inches from his. "You missed, rockstar." Barely a whisper.

It was his turn to be amused. The corner of his lip curled upwards. "Did I though, Ally?" His voice came out hoarser than he had expected.

Their eyes met for a brief moment before she followed his lowering gaze to where his gun was aimed. Her side. They returned to meet his. Dark brown on hazel. Austin's flickered from her eyes to her lips then back to her eyes. Hers mirrored his actions. Either one of them could've pulled the trigger. Either one of them could've won the game.

One of them bit their lip and the other just stood and stared with a hint of lust in their own. Neither of them spoke as their bodies pressed against each other, their breathing syncing together. Neither of them acknowledged the obvious rising sexual tension welling up in their bodies.

"Your move, Dawson." Neither of them dared to make a move. They were hardly even breathing. Staring into each other's eyes was the only kind of action they made until Austin felt a small hand snake up his chest to the back of his neck. His neck was then tugged down, making him lean forward abruptly, her lips meeting his halfway. It took him a moment to register what was happening before his own hand wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer. Austin heard Ally suck in a breath as he slightly lifted her, causing her to go on her toes to reach him.

The kiss was anything but soft and sweet. It was full of want and roughness. But dammit, it still made his head spin. Her lips were more intoxicating than he had imagined, and believe him when he says he's had daydreams about his songwriting partner. She tasted like strawberries and maple syrup. His mind screamed for more. He felt her hand move upwards into his hair, gripping a bundle of it. His hand, that held his gun, released it only for it to travel down to her rear-end, cupping it and giving it a gentle squeeze.

She squealed against his lips, which caused him to flip them over so that she was now against the wall. One hand still rested on her waist and the other holding the bottom portion of her cheek. Their lips slightly parted for air before he latched his back onto hers again with, but this time he tenderly took her bottom lip between his teeth. This earned a small moan escaping from her lips, only turning him on more.

A second later, her tongue licked the base of his bottom lip, sending a chill down his spine.

"Fuck," he croaked out. _More. More. More._ His own came began to play around with hers as he gave more pressure onto her lips. His hand somehow ended up slipping under her shirt and he felt her shiver as well. _Good to know the effect is mutual._ The more his hands explored her body, the more he needed to breathe her in like his life depended on her scent. His body pressed onto hers, heat radiating off them. Ally's being molded perfectly against his and she lived for it.

They had kissed before, but that was child's play compared to this. Those kisses were timid and cautious as if they were afraid of taking a risk. But this one...this was mindfuckingly mesmerizing. Any fear of risk taking had jumped off a cliff into a raging river of pure lust. Neither one of them anticipated how addicting the other would be. Why the hell hadn't they kissed like this before?

Detaching from her lips, his own traveled down her jawline to the curve of her neck. He inhaled the scent of her before placing searing kisses on her skin. Austin could hear the shallow breaths she was taking.

His hold on her tightened until he heard a subtle ringing noise where his grip loosened. He pulled away, panting, to see the lights on his vest flashing red. His eyes then darted to the female in front of him. Even in the dark, he could see her plumped, swollen lips. Her chest was also heaving as she blinked. Her laser gun still in her right hand. She shot him.

"Game over," she said just as the music stopped and the final alarm rang. The steadiness of her voice was no longer audible. Several cheers came from behind them. "I win."

* * *

 **see what i mean? delusional. i don't even know if the kiss was hot enough. oh well. the inspiration for this was a prompt i saw on tumblr and i hadn't written in a while so i just decided on a cute ass one shot idea. :)**

 **dedicated to cassie (itsally_dawson on twitter) bc she's still patiently waiting for my other fanfics that i told her i'd post lmfao**

 **xxx lecx**


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